Originally appeared on E! Online
Michael Richards is looking different these days.
The Seinfeld alum was publicly seen for the first time in two years, stepping out on May 10 for a casual shopping trip at Melrose Place in West Hollywood, Calif.
For the outing, Richards donned a dark jacket with matching jeans and thick soled boots. With his signature bushy hair brushed back, the 76-year-old wore a pair of eyeglasses with transparent frames.
The sighting was a rare one, given that Richards went on what he described as "an exodus" from the spotlight following a racist tirade at a comedy club in 2006.
"I canceled myself out," he explained in a 2024 appearance on Today. "Get away from show business to see what the heck is going on inside me to have been so despicable that night, losing my cool and hurting people."
And what Richards said he found was "anger."
"Looking at it very closely, it's something always with us—certainly with me," he continued, sharing that he's apologized for his actions and made amends since then. "Not as horrible as it was 18 years ago."
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Richards experienced another wake-up call in 2018, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
"I thought, 'Well, this is my time. I'm ready to go,'" he recalled in a 2024 interview with People. "But then my son came to mind just a few seconds later and I heard myself saying, 'I've got a 9-year-old and I'd like to be around for him. Is there any way I can get a little more life going?'"
The comedian—dad to an adult daughter named Sophia with ex Cathleen Lyons and now-teenage son Antonio with wife Beth Skipp—ultimately decided to seek treatment.
"I had to go for the full surgery," he said. "If I hadn't, I probably would have been dead in about eight months."
Though Richards continued to stay away from the entertainment industry in recent years, he released his Entrances and Exits memoir in 2024.
"Now in my 70s, having passed through a bout with cancer, I wanted to review my life, have a written account of myself for my fans and family," he explained at the time during a discussion with Jay Leno for Interview. "I don’t get out much. I’m a very private man. The book has been my way of coming out and saying hello."
Richards added, "If I make a mistake, I’ll embrace it and say, 'OK, let’s get through this,' rather than trying to bulls--t myself out of it."
For more stars who left Hollywood, read on.
